In a ceremony at CIET-NCERT, Shri Sanjay Kumar, Secretary, DoSE&L, sent off 64 happy and thrilled youngsters who had been invited by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) to participate in the Sakura Science High School Programme 2023 from India and other countries.
The event will take place from December 10 to 16, 2023. These deserving students are from Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Odisha, Ladakh, Uttar Pradesh, and Goa.
There are 26 guys and 38 girls in the group. Smt. Archana Sharma Awasthi, Joint Secretary, DoSE&L; Mr. Kemmochi Yukio, Manager JST Japan; Prof. Dinesh Prasad Saklani, Director, NCERT; and other DoSE&L officials also attended the occasion.
Since 2014, the JST, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education’s Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSE&L), has been implementing the Sakura Science High School Programme under the Sakura Science Programme (SSP) to broaden young learners’ intellectual horizons and foster a spirit of scientific exploration. Under the program, students are invited for short-term visits to Japan, where they may learn about cutting-edge science and technology as well as Japanese culture.
In April 2016, India became the program’s first participant. So far, 468 students and 75 supervisors have visited Japan as part of this program. In July 2023, the last group of 57 students visited Japan.
While highlighting the significance of Curriculum and Pedagogy in Schools, the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 affirms that “Learning should be Holistic, Integrated, Enjoyable, and Engaging in and of itself.” Furthermore, NEP 2020 emphasizes that at all stages, experiential learning will be implemented as standard pedagogy within each topic, as well as investigations of relationships between different disciplines.
It is in this framework that educational visits and excursions to various locations of historical, cultural, social, and technical significance are crucial. Japan, being a sophisticated nation and a friendly country, is also a popular location for educational exposure, in addition to technical breakthroughs. As a result, visiting a nation like Japan is always enlightening and allows for the exploration of new methods.
